How did Black Milk grew to such a scale, where they’re now revered like a cult?

1. Black Milk gives fans something to brag about by featuring their Instagram photos on official product pages.

How would you feel if photos of you wearing your favorite dress were featured on the company’s official product page?

At Black Milk, every product comes with a unique hashtag, where customers can tag photos of themselves wearing that product on Facebook and Instagram.

These tagged photos will then appear on the official Black Milk product pages, giving fans some serious social currency:

Customers get rewarded for buying and taking photos of their products, while Black Milk benefits by having more photos of their products circulating social media networks.

Word-of-mouth pro tip: Reward customers who actively promote and share your products, so they feel appreciated and are encouraged to keep it up.

2. Black Milk encourages fans to manage localized fan pages on Facebook, so they can meet up to trade leggings or just hang out with like-minded people.

Black Milk is famous for their social media engagment, and their Facebook page is where most of the magic happens. New products are announced, queries are answered, and competitions are usually held there.

But Black Milk doesn’t just have one Facebook page dedicated to them. There are different types of pages, all created and managed by Sharkies all over the world.

There are also smaller Black Milk fanpages created for localized communities, where Sharkies can meet up with fellow fans from the same state. These groups come from all over the world, from within Australia itself to the Philippines and Colorado, USA.

Word-of-mouth pro tip: Entrusting power to your customers gets them more involved with your brand, and shows that you trust and respect them enough to represent your brand.

3. Black Milk wins over comic and movie fans with licensed products of their favorite fictional characters, making them come back for more.

As a comic, movie, or novel fan, expressing your fandom might restrict you to wearing rather unstylish hoodies, caps or tees.

But Black Milk has managed to change all that; producing dresses, swimsuits and leggings that feature popular comics, movies and novel franchises.

Word-of-mouth pro tip: When you consider your target customer base, it is important to find out what else they might be crazy about. See if you can incorporate their peripheral interests into your products, so you can attract more customers.

Black Milk has often eschewed traditional advertising and credited their success to intensive social media engagement and word-of-mouth.

In an interview with Black Milk’s marketing and operations manager, Cameron Parker, he explained that:

…through word of mouth and the simple fact that no-one else is really selling crazy print leggings, we managed to find success. We have a $0 marketing budget so word of mouth is really important – it’s all about girls walking down the street and people coming up to them to say “oh my god, I want those tights, they’re so cool, where did you get them from?”

Looking at Black Milk’s story, we can see that customers don’t want a company that talks down to them and treats them like customers.

They want a company that respects them, gives them autonomy, and celebrates them for liking their stuff.

Questions to ponder:

What are your target customer’s online habits like? What platforms do they usually engage in?

What are they crazy about? Can you combine what they love with what you’re doing?

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